Excessive Sneezing Fits and Dark Brown Ear Build-Up in Cat

princessbella

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My little princess Bella has been a pretty healthy cat her whole life but starting about 6 months ago, I noticed a dark brown waxy build up in her left ear only, the right one is fine. I've been keeping an eye on it and it seems that the build up has only been getting worse. A couple weeks ago she began having sneezing fits, about 10 sneezes in a row at least once a day. I have a feeling that the sneezing is due to environmental allergies but the ear wax is a tad concerning to me. I'm in the process of getting her into the vet, but until then, does anyone have any idea what might be going on with my kitty?
 

hbunny

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Hi princessbella!  I'm no vet and definitely think you need to get Bella checked out so that she can be treated now if it is allergies, but I can tell you that is exactly what my 12 year old cat Wurp went through for years.  He finally was diagnosed with severe seasonal allergies a few years ago. He is now on antihistamines seasonally for it, and where we live that means almost year-round.  He had horrible ear wax (gooey brown and nasty!), nose runny, eyes runny, sneezing, hair loss...they thought he had a bad virus but it was allergies.  He is great now on his antihistamines.

Bad thing is though---the vets I saw definitely had to rule out infections and mites, and tested him for viruses.  They said all the symptoms can be the same and be misleading.  I was very, very grateful after all the tests to find out it was allergies.  They had me so scared it was a fatal illness.

Good luck with your princess Bella
Please update!
 

imjustacatmom

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Our cat Prince has the same issue...he was left to us in my father-in-law's will...anyhoo I requested notes from his previous vet and for Prince its a part of his breed...I am still planning on asking our vet about it to see what he says...but what I do is clean his ears about twice a week...I never thought about allergies @hbunny so now I will see if that could be why also
 

antisockcat

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I don't know anything about cat allergies, but my cat recently had horribly runny and excessive earwax.

I asked the vet about it and they sold me a $12 bottle of animal ear cleaning solution (most commonly for dogs after swimming). I was told to put it in his ears and clean them every 2-3 days for 2-3 weeks. No change would indicate an ear infection and he'd need a vet appointment.

It turned out my cat had gotten a scratch on the inside of his ear, and the earwax had been building up around it. I only had to clean his ear twice before the scab fell off and his ear went back to normal.
 
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